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Guyana’s team to the 13th FINA World Championships leaves tomorrow
Change from 25M to 50M pool can pose challenges – Nicholas Fraser
Set and ready for battle at FINA World Championships from left, Nicholas Fraser, Fabian Binns, Noelle Smith, Henk Lowe, Niall Roberts and Colleen Profitt-Aaron.
By Franklin Wilson
Guyana’s team to the 13th FINA World Championships will leave these shores tomorrow (Monday) for Rome, Italy.
Speaking with the media yesterday at Colgrain Pool, Head Coach Nicholas Fraser said he the four swimmers would have been training for quite sometime and also participated in local competitions.
In the pool, the Guyana team will be headed by Niall Roberts, the most experienced of the lot which is completed by Henk Lowe, Fabian Binns and the lone female, Noelle Smith.
Fraser, also a Vice President of the Guyana Amateur Swimming Association (GASA) who has responsibility for Technical Development will be this country’s delegate to the Technical Congresses, while the Association’s Honorary Treasurer Colleen Profitt-Aaron will be the representative to the General Congress.
Fraser noted that with the type of training regime the athletes were undergoing, he is expecting good performances. “In the tapering phase of their preparations, they were doing more power and speed work so I do expect them to go a lot faster than they did at the recent time trials for the Goodwill Games selection.”
“I would say though however that the change over from our 25 metre pool to the 50meter pool could pose some problems. We usually use the meet manager to translate the times from 25M to 50M but of course it doesn’t means much when it comes to the swimmers actually performing in front of a crowd and in a new pool. It is always a bit dangerous in terms of predicting their performances.”
Fraser also disclosed that they will have some time to train in the competition pool and will try to do some long swims to get accustomed to the temperature, the length and to learn the pool ahead of competition. “But there are a lot of things that we will try to work on before the races start.”
GASA is expressing sincere gratitude to the Management of Princess Buddies Hotel for allowing them uses of their pool to help prepare the swimmers.
Permission to use Castellani Pool rescinded
The team was given permission to use Guyana’s main pool situated at Castellani House, Homestretch Avenue in the afternoons for a specific period but it was rescinded almost immediately.
They were only able to enjoy a few practice sessions in late May before a letter was sent stating that the afternoon sessions which were requested for to train for the FINA championships team was no longer possible.
After receiving the letter, the spirits of the swimmers were not daunted as the coach started some training sessions at the National Park.
“We tried to do some extra sessions by going to the gym twice a week, Wednesday’s and Saturday’s and from the 7th of July we were given the go ahead to use the Princess Buddies Pool. We tried to adapt to that facility to get eth best uses out of it. We tried our best to use the pool as much as we could and we are very thankful for their support.”
Roberts is set to take part in the 50m and 100m fly as well as the 50m and 100m free. Smith will contest the 50m and 100m free, 50m fly and 50m breast. Binns is set for the 50m and 10m free along with the 50m fly while Lowe will take part in the 50m backstroke, 200m and 400m free and possibly the 1500m free.
This would be the first time that a Guyanese swimmer will be competing in distances beyond the 100 metre.
The 13th FINA World Championships got underway on Friday evening when some of the world’s finest divers engaged in a battle for the 1m springboard title.
This first final ended with complete success for China, whose two divers in this showdown – Olympic champion Qin Kai and Xinhua Zhang – collected the gold and silver medals with total scores of 449.00 and 445.90 respectively.
Matthew Mitcham (AUS) – the 10m platform Olympic champion – took the bronze after trailing Kai in second for most of the final.
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